Writers' Trust announces Journey Prize nominees!

The Writers' Trust/McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize is a unique literary award — not only does it honour individual short stories, rather than novels or full collections, it also spawns the annual, much loved Journey Prize Stories, a collection of the finest pieces of short fiction submitted for consideration for the award. The prize has a unique funding story as well — it is supported by James A. Michener’s donation of his Canadian royalty earnings from his 1998 novel Journey.

Each year, eligible literary journals and magazines across the country choose their favourites of the short stories they've published in the previous year. A jury will then choose the best of these stories for the annual collection, with the three best of those being further selected for the prize's shortlist. Finally, a single story will be selected as the winner, honoured as the best short story published in Canada that year.

This year's jury consists of Kate Cayley, Brian Francis, and Madeleine Thein, who is having a big year in 2016, having been recently nominated for both the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Man Booker Prize. They selected three stories, published in magazines across the country. The final winner will be announced at a Writers' Trust event on November 2, and will receive $10,000. The year will mark the 28th time the prize has been awarded.

2016 Writers' Trust/McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize nominees:

Charlie Fiset (Kenogami Lake, ON) for “If I Ever See the Sun”, published in The Fiddlehead

Colette Langlois (Edmonton, AB) for “The Emigrants”, published in PRISM international

J.R. McConvey (Toronto, ON) for “How the Grizzly Came to Hang in the Royal Oak Hotel", published in EVENT

Eric Siblin's The Cello Suites was a bestseller upon publication, popping up on prize lists left, right and centre (including the Weston Prize for Nonfiction, the Governor General's Literary Award and the BC National Award for Canadian Nonfiction).

So music-loving readers will rejoice to hear that he's back this spring with another music-themed offering, Studio Grace: The Making of a Record (House of Anansi). Studio Grace takes a more personal approach, charting the realisation of a long-held dream of Eric's: the recording of an original album.